


Snowfall

by distant_rose



Series: Little Pirates [37]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, First Kiss, Idiots in Love, M/M, Mutual Pining, You know typical stuff, they were roommates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-26 22:14:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20396995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/distant_rose/pseuds/distant_rose
Summary: Gideon has been in love with Wes for as long as he could remember, but has resigned himself to the fact he’s only meant to be Wes’s best friend and trusted confidante. Everything changes on a cold snowy December night.





	Snowfall

_‘_ _Your war memories will be with you forever, you’ll be asked about them thousands of times after the war is over.’_

Gideon had been staring at those nineteen words for the past twenty minutes, but for some reason, his brain refused to get past them. His mother had gifted him A Separate Peace for Christmas and while he was initially enthusiastic to read it, now he couldn’t bring himself to concentrate.

It wasn’t a secret as to why.

Wes had been pacing around their apartment now for the past twenty minutes, doing a circuit around the entire place. He seemed as content as a caged tiger, with his eyebrows furrowed together and his lips drawn into a thin pressed line. He wasn’t particularly loud, but the constant motion combined with the rather obvious tempestuous energy radiating off of him was enough to take Gideon’s eye away from the page.

“If you keep going about like that, you’re going to burn a hole into that carpet and I don’t think we can afford to replace it.”

Wes didn’t respond, he kept pacing. Occasionally he glanced up at the clock and the scowl got deeper.

Gideon Gold didn’t take kindly to being ignored.

“What’s wrong with you?” he snapped, his anger punctuated by the forceful shutting of his book. The sound cut through the room, causing Wes to jump and finally look at him.

“What?”

“What’s the matter with you? You’re acting strange. You’re pacing. You look nervous, and you’ve never looked nervous a day in your life. Even when you destroyed the truck. You’ve always been irritatingly unflappable. So what’s got you so…flappable?”

“Flappable? Is that all you got? You read almost two hundred books a year, all those words in your head and that’s all you can come up with? Flappable? It’s disappointing.”

“Well, this might be news to you, but you rate slightly higher on my list of concerns than my vocabulary,” he responded, unimpressed. “And you’re avoiding the question.”

“Bobbi.”

“Pardon?”

“Bobbi is the problem.”

“Ah.”

There was no other way to respond. Fights between Bobbi and Wes were frequent and infamous at this point. They had been on and off with their relationship for as long as he could remember. Gideon had done his best to stay out of their squabbles. No good had ever been done by getting involved. He had learned that the hard way.

“Is that all you have to say? How articulate.”

“What is there to say? It’s none of my business.”

“Isn’t it?” Wes responded, arching his eyebrows at him.

Gideon’s cheeks coloured with mortification at the question. An oppressing silence followed, as Wes continued to stare at him challengingly and Gideon struggled to formulate his words.

He had been dreading this moment his entire life. No amount of nightmares could have prepared him for it.

“I don’t think you’re socially aware enough to understand how inappropriate that question is,” he responded in a neutral tone when he finally found the words. “And because of that, I’m going to take a walk before we both say something we regret.”

“Gideon, I—“

“Stop,” he cut him off. “Just stop and give me space. For once, do as I say and not as you want, and give me space.”

He stood, dropping his book without care, and made his way to the door without looking at Wes. The silence between them rang loudly in his ears as he pulled on his jacket and left.

The cold January air stung his lungs, but Gideon was glad to feel something other than the mounting mortification. Despite the fact it was only after eight o’clock, the streets of Storybrooke were empty. Everyone was inside, preparing for the upcoming snowstorm and he was glad for the solitude.

He didn’t want anyone to see him like this. 

Hot tears trickled down his cheeks as he trudged his way down the sidewalk, snow and ice crunching loudly underneath his feet. One fact was buzzing loudly in his brain.

Wes knew.

Gideon had feelings for Wes and Wes knew it.

Those feelings had existed for as long as he could remember, but he had always known that he could never act on them. Wes had always had his eyes on Bobbi. Even though he had fooled around with every girl in their school, it had always been Bobbi that held his eye and Gideon had grown to accept that fact. It would always be Bobbi and he had been content to be nothing more than his best friend. Even though he wished he was the one in his arms and he was the one Wes was kissing, having his friendship and having his trust was better than having nothing.

Now Wes knew and everything would change.

He was going to lose his best friend.

He let out a shuddering breath as that one painful fact sunk in. He was going to lose his best friend, his world, the only boy who had ever approached him on the playground when they were kids.

Everything hurt.

Snowflakes began to fall, dancing in the harsh yellow of the street lamps. He watched them as they began fluttering to the ground, trying to calm the emotional maelstrom in his head. When he was a child, he used to spend hours watching snow storms from the window, waiting for the frost to cover the glass so he could draw and make funny pictures. His mother sometimes would join in and they would create scenes from the stories she would read to him.

His breath slowed as he watched, his steady exhales occasionally interrupted by the occasional hiccup.

“Gideon!”

He squeezed his eyes shut at the sound of his name.

Of fucking course.

Wes Jones never listened. If given a command, he would do anything in his power to thwart the wishes of the authority in question, even if it was his own best friend.

“Gideon, come here!”

He deliberately turned his back to him, fists balled in anger. He didn’t respond. If he did, Wes would win.

“Gideon, please!”

Snow crunched behind him, getting louder and closer with each sound. There was a tug on his shoulder.

“Look at me.”

“No.”

“Look at me…please…”

It was the ‘please’ that got him. Wesley Graham Jones had never said the word before in his life. Things came easy for him; he had always been charming and charismatic enough to get what he wanted without much effort. He never had to beg to get what he wanted.

Now, here he was.

Gideon turned, slightly startled to see how close Wes was. Wes was looking at him with concerned forget-me-not blue eyes. It was the eyes that always caught Gideon’s attention. No one had eyes like that.

“What do you want?”

“It’s cold,” Wes replied, stepping even closer. “And you forgot your scarf.”

He held up the red scarf that Gideon’s mother had made for him when he was still young, barely a teenager. It had been one of his favorite possessions, so much that he had considered it an extension of himself.

Wes didn’t wait for him to respond. Instead, he took it and wrapped it gently around Gideon’s neck. His eyebrows were knitted together in a contemplative expression as he smoothed it out like a fussy, affectionate grandmother.

“I’m not a good boyfriend.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I’m not a good boyfriend,” Wes repeated. “Bobbi and I…I haven’t been good to her. We broke it off last night…again…and I was angry and I decided that the answer to my anger and my hurt…was to flirt with another girl in front of her and show her what she was missing. I wanted to hurt her…”

“Okay. What does this have to do with anything?” Gideon asked, frowning.

“I’m getting there,” Wes rolled his eyes, tugging on Gideon’s scarf in emphasis. It was then that he noticed that Wes hadn’t let go of it, his fingers still curled into the knitted fabric. “Stop interrupting me.”

“Whatever. Just get on with it.”

“Needless to say it didn’t work. If anything, it amused her and she started to laugh. It made me angrier and it wounded my pride.”

“Not a typically hard thing to do.”

“Shush now. Story time,” Wes admonished again, giving him a pointed look. 

He still hadn’t let go of the scarf.

“I confronted her about it. I didn’t understand her reaction and she told me, point blank, that the girl I was flirting with was not and would never be her competition. She said she only had one true rival for my affections and that rival… was you.”

“Westley…she was just winding you up.”

“No, she was right.”

Gideon froze, afraid that if he so much as breathed, this moment would disappear forever. Wes stood before him, disheveled and, for once, genuine. The tips of his nose and ears were pink and his long blond hair was a mess, but he never looked more handsome than he did at that moment with his intense blue eyes earnest and snow collecting in his lashes.

“I don’t like people,you know this,” Wes spoke again. “Sure, I enjoy a good party, but most people I could do without. If the world ended tomorrow,there are only two people in the world that I would want to be with…it would be you and Bobbi, hands down. I love both of you more than my own family. You are my family, and for a long time, that’s all I thought I felt for you: something familial…I now know…that’s not true…it’s not…”

“Wes…”

“I’ve been blind… I’ve been blind for a long time, blind, and stubborn, and trying to make something that can’t work, work… and you’ve been here for so long and you never said anything — ”

“I didn’t want to lose you,” he murmured.

A small smile pulled at the corner of Wes’s lips. Gideon’s heart skipped as Wes stepped closer and cupped his cheek.

“You could never lose me. We’ve been friends for too long and I can’t imagine a world without you, nor would I want to. You’re my best friend, and… you’re one of the great loves of my life.”

“One of them? There’s more than one?” Gideon questioned, raising his eyebrows. He couldn’t help teasing Wes and his inability to think before speaking. His words had stung a little, but he understood how big of a gesture this was for Wes, who was incredibly ill equipped to make romantic speeches.

Wes seemed to realize the implications behind his words and looked stricken.

“Oh god, I’ve stepped in already!”

“Really, Westley? I’ve been waiting for this day since I was thirteen years old and this is the best you can do? Unbelievable.”

Wes’ face flushed further. “You know I’m not good at this.”

“Yeah, you really are a bad boyfriend,” he snickered.

“But I would like to be _your_ bad boyfriend.”

“You’re really on a roll with the bad lines today.”

“I can’t seem to stop myself,” Wes chuckled awkwardly, taking a step backwards but still holding onto the scarf.

“I can fix that,” Gideon said with a small smile.

Gideon was known for many things. He was known for being rather bookish, intelligent and sarcastic. He had been simultaneously a teacher’s wet dream and worst nightmare when he was in high school. What he wasn’t known for was his bravery. He had always left it to Wes and Bobbi to take the lead and be the brave ones when such things were required.

However, in this moment, he felt brave.

It was him who stepped forward this time. It was him who reached forward and traced his fingers along Wes’s cheek. And it was him who leaned forward and kissed Wes.

Wes’s lips were chapped and a little cold, but it didn’t stop the jolt of electricity that seemed to zip throughout his entire body. It didn’t take him too long to respond, his hands leaving Gideon’s scarf and traveling upwards. One cradled the line of his jaw and changed the angle of the kiss while the other curled in his hair, pulling him closer. The kiss wasn’t the most coordinated in the world, their noses smushing together and teeth clacking, but they made up for technique with enthusiasm.

It was hands down the best kiss Gideon had experienced.

Wes pulled back first, far enough away that their lips weren’t touching but close enough that Gideon still felt the warmth of his breath curling against his skin. His eyes were bright and he was smiling.

“So…that was new…” Wes chuckled.

“It was.”

“And it was pretty good - …A good start…”

“Yeah, a good start,” he agreed.

“Do you want to know what would make it better?”

“What?” he asked, quirking an eyebrow but still smiling.

“If I wasn’t freezing my ass off.”

“Oh my god, you really are the most unromantic person I know,” Gideon laughed. He couldn’t stop the giddy feeling inside of him from bubbling up to the surface.

“Can you handle that?” Wes asked, looking concerned.

Gideon leaned forward and pressed another kiss to his lips, this time quick and all too brief.

“Yeah, I can handle that. Now, let’s go inside and warm you up.”

“Yes, warm me up, I like the sound of that,” Wes smirked, wiggling his eyebrows at him.

Gideon rolled his eyes.

“I’m gonna say this now because I know what you’re like, but I’m not sleeping with you. Not until you buy me dinner first.”

“What if I make you dinner?” Wes asked. He held out his hand, wiggling his fingers at him. Gideon tentatively took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Sure, but I’m going to say this point blank: boxed macaroni and cheese or microwave ramen does not count as dinner.”

“But that’s all I know how to make,” Wes pouted.

“Yes, I’m well aware.”


End file.
